ESPN OTL did a study on the last six years of college ADs finances (2007-08 to 2012-13). Michigan led the Big Ten during the period with a total of $90,243,483 of profit, averaging $15,040,580.50/per year.

Ohio State was number #1 in the country in 2012-13 with a surplus of $24 million. Michigan was #4 in revenues ($143.5 million), #3 in expenses ($131 million), & #7 in surplus ($12.2 million) in 2012-13. I was a little surprised at how much Wisconsin made in 2012-13, ranking #2 in the country in revenue and expenses, but I guess this may be dependent on how many home football games a school has and how schools maintain their financial books.

Gene Smith is the fifth highest paid AD in the country and highest paid in the B1G at $1,058,546 ($250,000 in potential bonuses).

Barry Alvarez comes close to Smith at sixth in the country, at $1,040,800.

And our own Dave Brandon comes in at thirteenth nationally, and third in the B1G, at $700,454 ($165,000).

Thoughts? Obviously LOL Smith, but I was a bit surprised to see that Alvarez stands to make that much more money than Brandon. I guess DB is still early in his career at Michigan...would be interested to see if he's getting paid less because he's already loaded.

Here is a reply from Bruce Madej suggesting (in my opinion) that there is little chance that The Game will remain at the end of the "regular" season. His closing line is especially telling. Let me know what you think.

Dear Nicholas,

Thank you for your note on the importance of Michigan-Ohio State football game. President Coleman and other university leaders have asked me to respond on their behalf.

I want to assure you that no one understands the tradition of this Big Ten football rivalry more than Athletic Director David Brandon. He has experienced this legendary rivalry first hand as a player, as a fan and supporter of the athletic program and as a U-M regent.

Expansion of the Big Ten is certain to bring some changes. We know there will be a conference championship game in 2011 and we expect to soon learn the details of the divisional alignment. Clearly we would like to have Michigan and Ohio State play the last game of the season for the Conference Championship (as has happened so many times in the past). However, based on a 12 Team - two division conference with a championship game format, in order for this to happen in the future both teams will have to play their way into the championship game. Which, we hope happens many times!

Certainly one of the priorities of the Big Ten commissioner and the Big Ten athletic directors is preserving the traditional rivalries, like Michigan-Ohio State and Michigan-Michigan State. This will continue to be a driving principle...as will creating competitive balance between the two divisions.

Just like the renovations to the Big House, we believe the Big Ten can move forward and make improvements while maintaining the traditions that are so important to fans.

This blog is the most active Michigan football fanbases on the world wide web. There are at the moment 173 comments regarding the decision to move The Game, please review them so that you understand where your fanbase stands. Please keep The Game as our final game of the year. It is a tradition that will help insure the Michigan-OSU game remains the greatest rivalry in sports.

Decent article on Athletic Department struggles around the U.S. - which ultimately shows how lucky we are that the state economy hasn't tried to derail the Big House expansion and other AD projects. I know that there are ongoing debates about getting a home and away series with another major program and who we should get for the 2010 opener, this shows that those decisions do have a trickle down to other athletic teams. Hopefully we can see an expansion involving Title IX sometimes soon, adding Men's Lax and Women's Something...

Highlights:

Michigan's athletic department had a $9 million surplus after the most recent fiscal year. The Wolverines just completed several multimillion-dollar construction projects and have plans to build new wrestling and basketball practice facilities and a new soccer stadium.

Florida, buoyed by its second football BCS national championship in three seasons, will increase its athletic budget by $5.9 million this year. The Gators had the third-highest grossing athletic department in the country last year at $106 million, according to Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. Texas had the biggest at $120.3 million, and Ohio State was second at $118 million.